Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-16
BANANAS ALL THE YEAR.
How They Are Brought to New
York and How Grown.

A steamer unloading ten thousand
punches of bananas. A stevedore
mounted on the deck, giving out Or
ders to a hundred longshoremen who
stand in lines and pass the punches OF
fruit from the hold of the vessel to
waiting trucks The owner, standing
on an upturned barrel and calling out
Zone, "'"Two," or "Three," designat-
ing the grades to which the bananas
belong. Trucks backing into place,
loading, and pulling out to make room
for others. Small boys scurrying be-
tween the trucks, and feasting on the
over-ripe fruit.
Such was the scene a reporter be-
held on a down town wharf in New
York.
Two million lunches of bananas
come into this port alone every year
now," said the importer. Previous
to 1884 there were not near SO many.
Schooners were employed, and they
took six weeks to make trip, carry
ing only 25O0 punches, and lost Il
quarter of them on account OF the
length of time afioat and the damage
by salt water. Now we have regular
lines of steamers that carry four or
five times as much fruit and make
such quick trips that there is practi-
eally no loss OF fruit"
"Well, the reds, which appear to
be the favorites, come from Baracoa,
Cuba. We get from 10000 to 10000
punches of them a week during Au-
gust, but less now that peaches are
in market. The yellow ones come
from Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica
and Nicaragua. There are some
bananas produced in Florida, but the
home demard prevents any coming
here. 1t will not be long before the
red bananas will be very scarce, as
the Cuban planters are replacing
them with the yellow slips from ia
maica. The cause of this is that the
yellow produce lunches averaging
from $2 to $2.25, while the red vii
not average more than $l.50 bunch.
"How do bananas grow?
"On immense plantations, laid Oil
into rows of trees about eight feet
apart each way. The trunk of BAN
ana tree is composed of the stems OF
leaves, and grows from fifteen to
twenty feet high. When the fruiting
begins bud appears at the top OF the
stem and develops into a bunch OF
bananas. When the fruit is gathered
the tree is cut down and left to decay
and new sprouts start up from the
same root, and thus the crop is con.
tinually renewed. There are about
seven hundred trees to the acre, and
each one produces one bunch of fruit
New plantations are started by
setting out young sprouts about
two feet high. The gather
ing of the bananas differs. In Cen
tral America the native Indians are
employed. They cut the tree with 6
machete until it bends over SO as to
bring the bunch within reach. 1t is
then cut off and carried ON the backs
of the men down to the ships which
run up the rivers. The loading is
usually done by forming line and
: passing the punches from hand tC
hand. This is not very pleasant
work, as the lunches often contain
| scorpions, tarantulas, centipedes ano
other venomous insects that gel
shaken out of the punches as they are
passed and bite and sting the hand
Ter. In Jamaica, the negro women are
, used to load the fruit, and in Cubs
both negroes and halfbreeds are EN-
ployed. In the hold OF the vessel the
, bananas are placed in bins holding
5 several hundred punches each, anc
| arranged to admit all the air possible
The ventilation is so important thai
, large canvass tunnels called wind
sails are fixed on deck so as to catcf
the wind and carry it down into the
hold. In winter much care is neces
sary to prevent the cargo from freez
ing on the voyage or while unloading
Bananas are almost the only fruit tina
is always in season. They arrive a
this port every month in the year
,, During the poorest months in mid
winter we receive 10000 punches, ant
in summer the number frequentl.
reaches $4,000 bunches."
Impotency in man or woman cured